Neil Anderson daily devotion

I subscribe to Neil Anderson's daily devotion, simply called Daily In Christ. It was an amazing devotion today. I thought I would copy and paste it so that I could have an amazing blog post. The ironic thing? He didn't write it either, he's referencing somebody. You can go ahead and reference my blog to keep the cycle of friendly plagiarism alive. Here we go:

DO IT ANYWAY
Galatians 6:10 While we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith
After I had driven home the point that nobody or nothing can keep us from being what God wants us to be, one of my students gave me this nugget of truth from an unknown author.

People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for the underdog anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help, but may attack you if you help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you've got and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.

Prayer: Lord, I purpose today not to listen to my detractors or look to the left or the right, but to stay on the clear, sure path You have set before me.

Aaron Weiss

Tomorrow marks the release of mewithoutYou's new album. The title is:

it's all crazy! it's all false! it's all a dream! it's alright

which can be a bit of a mouthful. I'll no doubt have a review coming soon on the blog. My dear friend and companion Matt Van Maanen introduced me to the band about 3 years ago when he wanted to use one of their songs for a video we were making. It was the track "Bullet to Binary" of mwY's first album, [A->B] Life. I thought it was horrible. The grumbling dissonant guitars, some guy half yelling half talking saying "let us die, let us die." Blech.

Thankfully, Matt didn't let up. His next piece of propagana was the music video to the song "Paper Hanger." What made me pay attention was how Matt could re-enact the entire video on the blue fluffy carpet of our dorm room. More precisely, he could re-enact every naive facial expression and daisy-in-the-wind dance move of the lead singer, Aaron Weiss. The song contained some of Weiss's genius:

"Not one motion of her gesture could I forget
The prettiest bag lady I ever met....
....If I was a basket filled with holes
Then she was the sand I tried to hold"

And so, after walking to Matt's dorm room across the hall and seeing him watch the video every day at 4pm sharp, it started to grow on me. There was something to the madness of these mewithoutYou guys. An acquired taste, not sweet and sugary, but lumpy and crusty and at times bitter, but always leaving a good aftertaste.

The center of the madness and the genius is Aaron Weiss. He officially has social anxiety disorder, I believe. I have a friend who was at one of the early shows where he saw Aaron have a little bit of an anxiety attack and he tried to leave the stage. His brother Michael, the guitarist, stopped him and talked to him and got him to at least finish the show. But that was just part of the beauty and mystery of the band. Who knew if they could hold it together. While they did hold it together, Aaron crafted amazing lyrics and performed them more like spoken word poetry.

The angst and the poetry and the genius was real. But over the progression, you could see Aaron grow and mellow out and put deeper roots of faith in the Lord. The first album, downright scary and angry. The second album, more tempered, yet still edgy and on a journey. The process is even chronicled on that album in the song "Tie me up, Untie me" with the lyric

"She's like the hot cloth on a fevered head,
And like a needle she leads me (while I follow like thread)
But you untied me... didn't You untie me, Lord?
And now I haven't even thought about killing myself in almost five months"

Some of the most unnerving encouraging lines you'll find.

The progression continued on the next release which was called Brother, Sister after the a poem that I believe is by St. Francis. In this, much of the angst was expressed in agrarian themes, such as

"the books are overdue and the goats are underfed
the trap I set for you seems to have caught my leg instead"

The music mellowed out significantly, adding accordians and harps to some songs. They still had the good guitar work, but it was the turning point from being an angry hardcore-ish band to being makers of interesting music.

And so, I come to the whole reason that I sat down to write this post in the first place:
This new album looks to be a step even further in the progression of being less angst ridden and heavy, and more agrarian folklore. Which, as I said, makes for interesting music that is more accessible.

But here's the rub: Aaron is not so angry anymore. He's not a tortured soul, wondering if he's going to make it with himself another day. I dunno, maybe this full album tomorrow will surprise me, but the 3 songs that have been released so far lead me to believe that the shrew has been largely tamed.

Should I feel bad for being a little disappointed? Weiss was fiery, he was intense, he was masterful. His genius shone in the midst of his dark valleys. In some ways, I feel triumphant walking into tomorrow to buy an album that looks to be the top of the summit; Aaron's ascent to a full and victorious life in Christ. But is it okay if I miss the old Aaron, just a little?

The album will still be good. But I think it's the beginning of the end. Some of their old followers will start to loose interest. Hopefully the more accessible horn section and piano ballads will open the door to more fans. I dunno. But already I feel they're becoming a different band entirely.

Hats off to you, Mr. Weiss, for overcoming the inner demons and walking more toward the light. Sorry if I treated you like a side show spectacle at times. Thanks for letting us enter your pain. And thanks for continuing to point people to that light, as you said in "O Porcupine":

"and all I ever want to say for the rest of my life
is how that light is G-d,
and though I've been mistaken on this or that point,
that light is nevertheless G-d."

Hamster Wheels

My apartment currently contains two hamsters. Which is two more than I would prefer, but hey, as long as Chris takes care of them and I don't have to touch them, I won't make a fuss. Claus and Su-Su never did anything to me, so I don't have reason to kick them out or anything.

Claus is a Russian dwarf hamster, making him about a third the size of Su-Su. We're just babysitting Su-Su for a friend who is currently out of the country. Unfortunately, S-squared lives in a cage about a third the size of Claus's cage, with a hamster wheel that in no way fits his girth. Yet he keeps running on that thing, rotation after rotation, with his back arched painfully, covering almost 180 degrees of the wheel.

It's almost painful to watch him run on that miniature wheel. I'm not just saying that because he's a rodent and I generally distaste watching rodents do anything. Even people who appreciate hairball pets have commented, asking Chris, "Why does he run on that thing?" Chris shrugs and answers back,

"He was just made to run, I guess."

It got me thinking, because in that same room across from the hamster cage is the couch where you see my roommates spend hours and hours hunched over Bibles or scrunched in kneeling next to the coffee table praying. I'm encouraged and humbled by the collective yearn for God that is displayed by the 3 guys I live with. But at times their reaching out for God and wanting to meet with Jesus doesn't look comfortable or like it's the most fun thing in the world. But like that hamster folded in half in his wheel, they just keep running. So if a passerby would stop and ask, "Why does he pray and read his Bible like that?" I would have to shrug and reply,

"He was just made to be with God, I guess."

John 14:6

Just heard an amazing sermon online by the likes of Brian Zahnd. I heard him speak once at ISU, and since then I've been compelled to occasionally listen to his podcast. He's a well read poetic pastor who took a church of like 80 people in podunk Missouri to 4,000 members. After his sermons sometimes I have to go to the dictionary, because he'll say things like "it's a scathing indictment on the world we live in." It's great.

Here's some notes from his sermon "Changing the World with a whisper." The gist of it was that in our American culture where 75% claim to be Christian but few actually walk in truth, we need less to preach at people with the bullhorn and come near to people and simply whisper. In it, he unpacked John 14:6 in one of the most thorough ways I've heard. Here are his bullet points:

Jesus is the way to find forgiveness
Jesus is the way to reconciliation with God and one another
Jesus is the way to be human
Jesus is the way back to the garden
Jesus is the way to inner peace, social peace, and world peace
Jesus is the way to prosperous living and abundant life
Jesus is the way for human beings to recover and confer dignity
Jesus is the way for us to love our enemies and end the cycle of revenge
Jesus is the way for legislatures to craft laws and for elected officials to govern
Jesus is the way for families to live together without anger, alienation, or abuse
Jesus is the way for the alcoholic to get sober and the addict to get clean
Jesus is the way for the poor to find a way out of their poverty
Jesus is the way for the wealthy to learn how to share
Jesus is the way for the selfish to learn how to care
Jesus is the way of healing for the sick in miracles and medicine
Jesus is the way for the old world the new world and the third world to become God's good world
Jesus is the truth which leads us to abandon our false philosophies and idolatrous religions
Jesus is the life of authentic Christianity, whether in catholic, orthodox, protestant, or evangelical expression
Jesus is the way for a prodigal people to return from self imposed exile and live again in the father's house where there is room for all
Jesus is the truth which liberates us from the lies of sin and satan which have bound since the fall
Jesus is the life which our best poets writers and musicians always thought was possible but never quite could find
This is our Gospel, God's whisper of love and truth that can change the world

Praise God. I want in on that!

gotta feel SOMEthing

I've been noticing things that lead me to believe that maybe our culture is getting a little numb. Numb to the point that we have to do more and more to just feeeeeel SOMEthing. Be more extreme, more hardcore, more MORE just so that it pokes our callouses enough to at least make somebody notice.

Examples:
Used to be that people got excited about Mountain Dew, it was the big caffeine pick-me-up.
Now? There are a hundred different kinds of energy drinks, Monster and Red Bull and Nos. They are getting ridiculous. Caffiene isn't enough, now we need it's big angry brother, taurine. My dad sees people in the hospital emergency room who have had too many energy drinks. No joke.

Used to be that people got excited about Stone Cold Steve Austin and Goldberg. These mammoth men created violence within the scripted confines of WWE and WCW.
Now? Mixed Martial Arts, the Octagon, people beating each other up with blood and submission holds and broken limbs. Chuck Liddell is the real life Chuck Norris.

Used to be that people got excited about the latest punk band or ska outfit. Concert goers would skank around the dance floor in a light mosh, looking something like a person bumper car skating rink.
Now? Hardcore. Thrashcore. Screamo. Shriek louder, hit the bass drum faster, and crunch the guitars more maliciously. People dance by throwing fists and roundhouse kicks. It actually looks pretty cool when they get wound up and those punches and kicks beat the airspace. Just hope there aren't any faces in that same airspace.

Just some observations. The world has changed even from when I was in high school. I'm not bemoaning the world, saying "it's all going to pot! This next generation sucks!" I'm just wondering what's next.
Mountain Dew to Monster to Adrenaline IV's?
WWE to MMA to Prison inmate deathmatch?
Punk to hardcore to.... chainsaws and jackhammers on stage?

Wisdom seems to tell me that it can only go so far. When is the ending point where we can't get any more extreme? I know time usually goes in cycles, getting more hardcore would probably be followed by a general pacification. However, my observations here were mostly based on high school males, it's not like all of society is in the thrill culture, or even the Monster Energy Drinks culture. Where do all these kids go from here? Skydiving?

Last questions: has this filtered over into the culture of Christianity? It's not that the Church should have lots of sleepless nights over what the christian subculture is drinking to start the day or watching on prime time TV. These things don't necessarily have direct consequences on holiness and maturity in Christ. But it does mean that men's retreats include paintball and mountain hikes and shooting real guns within the church.

If only being more hardcore meant sharing the gospel with more people and dealing more radically with sin......

Renewal of all things

In the last post, when I brought out the Habbakuk 3:2 verse, I did a search of the word "renew" to bring it up. As I perused the other verses produced in the search, I came across Matthew 19:28. A slightly obscure verse where Jesus is talking to his disciples about their place in his kingdom. It says- Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

One of those interesting things that puts a picture in your mind of Peter at the pearly gates and whatnot. But here's the part that caught my eye:

at the renewal of all things

Doesn't that just sound beautiful? All things are going to be renewed. Our relationships. The economy (lolz). Darfur. Our d r e a m s. All the rough burrs and smudges and ink blots that have accumulated over the years. Renewed. Washed away. Ahhh, thinking about it just makes me want to lean back and close my eyes and smile at Him. Who, you ask?

the Son of Man who sits on his glorious throne

Him. The one who was responsible for all that renewing on all those things. Author and perfector. Kickstarter and like-new-er. Craftsman and polisher. Jesus.

Demographic for revival

Today, 4 out of 5 students who attended church in high school do not attend church in college.

Also, 4 out of 5 students drink alcohol in college. I'm not trying to say that BEER IS THE DEVIL, I acknowledge that there is a healthy way to drink and enjoy the God-created pleasures of alcohol. Problem is, half of college drinkers "engage in heavy episodic consumption," aka binge drinking. Getting wasted. Not something that helps them reflect God's image.

Jimmy, the average All-American boy stepping on campus for the first time this fall, will stop going to church and start going to house parties. That is the general slope of college society today, the path of least resistance.

Has that always been the case? There was a day, when George Washington Carver went to Iowa State University, that half of all the campus was in some sort of Bible study. Half.

That is 1 out of 2.

Fifty percent.

The glass was half full.

It is possible to reclaim and surpass this. I know it is, Lord. Come and shake the earth. Lord, it looks less like leaving the 99 to find the 1 lost sheep, but more like leaving the 1 to find the 99 lost sheep. But it is doable, Lord. You are the God of all of time and space, all statistics and people. You care deeply about each 19 year old kid who is puking on a sidewalk somewhere, simply because that's the way of life he has strolled into.

Half the campus. That's 13,000 souls. It is not too large a thing. The arm of the Lord is not too short to save. Renew it in our day, Lord.
Habbakuk 3:2-LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

ANTHEM, aka, I love my boss

Thursday night was ANTHEM. It was simply ridiculous. Two services of 600 people each just singing their guts out to the Most High Lord of Heaven.

Jesus, why is it that when we give all that we have to you and worship you to the uttermost, it all just turns around and fills us with joy and life? We're trying to lift you up and bless you, and you turn right back around and just pour it out on us. Crazy.

I was on the video team for this Anthem, as I have been for the last three. Thre's a bit of a difference between helping produce the worship event and just showing up and being part of the worship event. Not that one is better than the other. Just different. I remember when I was running the camera on stage left, all up in Bobby's grill with the guitar solos and then getting awesome shots of Ryan as he's singing with the crazy lights shining around him, and in my head I'm just screaming JESUS YOU REIGN!!!! It's fun. But different.

I did make it that much sweeter when they did a 3 song encore. I had already set down my camera in a safe place and taken off the headset when the band came out.
*Sidenote: They didn't really make the crowd work for the encore, like many bands do at concerts I've been too. It was more of a meet each other half way thing. Half of the crowd was sticking around saying "one more song" and half of the band was at the back edge of the stage, with their expression saying "can we play one more? Yeah?" Which is probably good to not be uppity about encores, since this is technically a "worship event" and not a "concert." Ok, sidenote over...
I got to be in the front and center of the crowd amongst the crazy sweating people for the encore, which was amazing. The band did "To Know You More" which is quickly becoming a favorite song.

Then, the moment: The song crescendos. Mark is rocking out on stage center, and we lock eyes. One thought is in my head at that moment: STAGE DIVE. I'm standing next to Jase Rohde and Ben Jensen, who are both strapping young men, we can do this! I can tell Mark and I are on the same wavelength. To make it all clear, I gesture with my arms in the air like a dad in a pool beckoning his 6 year old son who's on the pool deck. Mark's eyes get wide, the song is blaring. Mark takes a step back and crouches like a skater about to drop into the half-pipe. Three bounding steps forward, and
yyyyyyeeeeaaaaahhhhh!!!!!!
jumps into our arms. Ben, Jase and I caught him, but the girls standing directly behind us kind of ran away. Luckily Mike Easton jumped underneath Mark's body. Mark did a good half turn in the air like any good stage diver would, although he kind of piked up into a ball, probably because he saw the people running away. But we caught him, bottom line. It was awesome. The people to our right were on board, so Mark floated that way until we tossed him back up onto the stage, unscathed.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I love my boss. Well, that and the fact that he loves Jesus and follows Him everyday with the same intensity as a stage dive. Praise God.